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Thursday, 18 May 2017

Taken a bit of time to get this post set up, my PC ended went to the big electronic graveyard last week and getting used to a laptop takes a while.
Two sets again. This time, RedBox´s 15th Century Burgundian Infantry and Knights sets 1 & 2.
A lot of them can be added to the Ultima RatioSwiss infantry sets or mixed with other Redbox WotR´s sets, the only small Problem, the embossed burgundian crosses need removing on a few of them.

Set one.Mainly heavy infantry. Nearly half of them have Bannerols (Little pennons/flags) on their helmets. While this isn´t incorrect, a bannerol was carried by the Squadron leaders, Conductors and Chief de Chambre , it does seem excessive with nearly half of them having one. Still, it gives a choice as to which bod is a leader type and they are easy enough to remove.

Set 2Mainly pikemen. Again, a lot of bannerols but again, easy to remove.The molded pikes? IMHO, too thick and a wee bit too short for my liking, not only that, one or two suffered from "brewers droop" so I replaced them with Florist wire.Not only are the molded pikes (IMHO) too short, thick or droopy but a couple of poses have got a lot of extra plastic between the pikemen´s bodies and the pikes. Along with the pikes, this all needed removing.

The two at the front have had head swops

Some of these, the pikes and halberds, will, along with a few others, form a Mk2 Burgundian pikeblock. The rest will fill out the infantry blocks.

Friday, 5 May 2017

Two sets this time..
Both sets are made by Ultima Ratio and are supposed to represent the Cantons of Uri and Bern The Reviews on the sets are up at PSR (Uri HERE and Bern HERE) so you can stop reading here and look at the pics or read my consideration on them.
Basically, a lot of conversions. Flags removed, in one or two cases, the embossed crosses removed and some have had halberds swopped for pikes.
Some have also decided to join the ranks of a (in Progress) Burgundian Pikeblock (Mk2)

UriHornblower. Originally the pose has the bod carrying the flag, which is just wrong. Either he´s the horn blower or the Standard bearer, not both!! It´s not too too difficult to remove but a pain nonetheless.
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"Mancatcher". A great idea, especially as seeing there´s (as far as I know) never been one represented in 1/72nd but the pose is, IMHO, as disaster. He´s Holding the Catcher the wrong way around, ie; Left handed! While this isn´t impossible it seems highly unlikely and with three in the set, more than highly unlikely.

The fowl hanging from the bod on the right is an Addition since the set came out in metal

The Crossbowman. Basically a poor pose as he Looks like he´s sneaking about trying not to get noticed, so I haven´t bothered to paint him The rest are nice poses and the Halberds can be swopped quite easily for pikes, which means, after the flag has been removed, you end up with a possible 11 usefull poses.

BernThe better of the two sets as every pose can be used . Three of the halbardiers can have the halberds swopped for pikes which gives a possible 11 usefull poses, the same as the set from Uri but a lot less work to get the numbers up.

The Standard bearer. Basically the lack of armour makes him not 100% in his role but removing the flag and downgrading him to a pike man is a pain, but not too difficult. A total of 16 bods in both sets, with conversions you end up with 22. Not a bad Basis for a block of halbardiers and as the size and style fit well alongside the halbardier bods from the RedBox sets, the Continental Mercenaries, or Hussite Infantry for example.Interesting is that some of the poses turned up a few years back, around 2012, in metal.The set originally contained a mix of the poses from both the new plastic sets.

Back then I painted them up as members of the Medieval Pike Block which, embarrassingly, after nearly 4 years, still isn´t finished but now some of the above can join the ranks.

Both the Standard bearers, Left Bern, Right Uri, with the big lumps of plastic removed.

Basically, a plea too all bod manufacturers;

"Please Don´t add flags, plain or otherwise, to the Standard bearers. Both Versions are pain to paint and if part of the bod, a pain to remove! Just give us the Standard bearer without the flag..at best with just the pole, we can add our own flags!!!!"

Some of the halbardiers converted to pikemen

The bod front left. Originally half his helmet and face were covered in plastic from the Halberd shaft. It was way easier to simply remove and replace his head along with the Halbard.